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Stressed Out: The Addiction You Might Not Know You Have

Stress is a daily occurrence in all of our lives, and often comes in waves. Take college finals week, for example. A week where students all over the country lock themselves in the library, their dorm room, or favorite coffee shop to go over every topic learned throughout the semester in hopes of walking away with the grade they want. It’s an all out sprint to the finish line, full of caffeine and sleepless nights. But suddenly, it all comes to a screeching halt. You take your last final, and the floodgates immediately close. For me, the relief of finishing my finals soon turned into a peculiar itch I had never experienced before. Within one weekend of being home with no responsibilities, I began to feel antsy. I craved the hustle and bustle of having a full schedule from dawn to dusk. This led me to wonder, can a person actually be addicted to stress itself?

In fact, one study performed by the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, placed college students under this exact type of stress by requiring them to solve as many difficult math problems as they could during a set period of time. After periodic measurements of hormones in their saliva, as well as PET scans, the researchers discovered that students experienced a spike in dopamine levels while completing the stressful math task. Sounds like a typical day in Calculus for some of us, right? However, when we are put under this kind of pressure, we are rewarded with a feeling of euphoria and increased motivation. Because of this, we are more likely to crave the feeling again and again, which can lead to a literal stress addiction.

Savanah Jackle is an undergraduate student studying Biological Engineering with an emphasis in biomedical engineering at the University of Georgia. In addition to her studies, Savanah loves working with elementary school children to teach them about STEM concepts. With her education and training, she would like to go into either medical machine design or the prosthetics industry, and also continue her work in encouraging young women to pursue careers in engineering. If she’s not hanging out in Driftmier Engineering Center, you can find Savanah hiking outside or trying hopelessly to keep up with her crazy beagle, Olive. And no, that’s not a typo. She really spells her name with one “n.” You can e-mail her at savanah.jackle25@uga.edu or connect with her on Twitter. More from Savanah Jackle.